Items, such as vehicles, are typically manufactured or assembled by the use of a relatively large number and variety of components such as, by way of example and without limitation, wiring harnesses, sun roofs, and hoods. It should be appreciated that the terms “manufactured” and “assembled”, in this Application, mean the creation or construction of an item, such as a vehicle.
Oftentimes, an “assembly line” is used to manufacture or assemble vehicles or other items. In this arrangement, for example, the various components of the vehicle are operatively placed upon the body or frame of the vehicle at various stations or locations of the assembly line. In this manner, each station or location corresponds to a unique stage of the overall vehicle assembly process and requires the placement of a unique component or the performance of a certain function upon the partially formed vehicle. Oftentimes, a single assembly line is used to produce a wide variety of different models or types of vehicles in order to efficiently utilize the manufacturing machinery and personnel included within and/or cooperatively forming the assembly line.
While the manufacture of a wide variety of vehicles by the use of a single assembly line does allow efficient use of existing resources, it does have some drawbacks. For example, many of these dissimilar vehicles respectively require unique types of components. Hence, the number of dissimilar vehicles which may be built or created by an assembly line is typically and directly proportional to the number of different types of components which must be used during the manufacturing process. Therefore, a great variety of components must be used in order to allow a great variety of vehicles to be produced.
Further, since these vehicles are manufactured and “flow through” the assembly line at a relatively fast pace, this relatively large number of components must be readily available to the assembly line personnel. Due to the typical lack of component storage space existing along the assembly line, many of these components must be selectively “shuttled” into the assembly area on an “as needed” basis, thereby further complicating the manufacturing or assembly process. It is desirable to have these components available to the installers before these components are actually needed or utilized in order to allow for a continuous manufacturing process and to maximize the amount of vehicles which are produced.
Particularly, in one non-limiting embodiment, the transport of these components into the assembly area is typically scheduled by the use of a “build schedule” which identifies the order that vehicles are to be manufactured by the assembly line. The build schedule is typically created before assembly actually begins, thereby allowing a planned or scheduled “shuttle” of components in the assembly area to occur.
While this approach does sometimes allow a relatively accurate component transport schedule to be created, oftentimes the “build schedule” must be dynamically altered or changed due to difficulties or occurrences, which arise after the build schedule has been created (e.g. the identity of faulty components which prevent a certain type of vehicle to be built in accordance with the build schedule). Oftentimes the component transport schedule is not modified to reflect these “build schedule changes” or is incorrectly modified, thereby undesirably disrupting the assembly process.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved method for manufacturing and/or assembling an item, such as a vehicle, which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of prior methods.